Senior Lecturer in Chinese and Colonial History at the University of York.
Research and teaching website: jonhowlett.com
Jon Howlett
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Rocha’s Macanese hero Joaquim Pacheco, was the hard man at the heart of Sporting’s defence in that era. Unfortunately, Rocha’s time at Sporting was reportedly marred by racism due to his half-Chinese background.
Rocha left Sporting after only 17 appearances (2 goals), but then signed for Académica de Coimbra where he made over 400 appearances and scored over 50 goals. He retired in 1971, after 14 seasons and opened a Chinese restaurant the Lung Wah in 1979.
Take that, weather forecasters...
In 1954 Rocha scored a hat-trick in Macao’s 3-2 win in the annual interport match against Hong Kong which secured him a move to European giants Sporting CP in Lisbon. (Hong Kong have won 58 of 74 interport games: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Ko...)
With the World Cup approaching, I thought I’d share a topical story about an underwhelming England performance: In May 1958 England were preparing for the tournament with a friendly against Portugal. Beware, warned Roy Peskett in the Daily Mail, of Augusto Rocha, ‘o Pequeno Tigre’ from Macao
His talent earned him seven national team appearances, including in a famous victory over Pelé’s Brazil in 1963. In the May 1958 match vs heavy favourites England, Peskett’s prediction almost came true: Rocha’s shot narrowly skimmed the bar. Two Bobby Charlton goals secured a narrow 2-1 home win.
Here is Rocha's page on wikisporting:
www.wikisporting.com/index.php?ti...
And the details of the England match:
www.englandfootballonline.com/Seas1946-60/...
Any true football fan knows Portuguese nicknames are the best: ‘o Pequeno Tigre’ = the ‘Little Tiger’. Born in Macao in February 1935 to a Portuguese father and Chinese mother, Rocha began his career at Sporting Clube de Macau in 1953.
Peskett described Rocha as ‘the Chinese Jimmy Greaves’. He had coined the nickname in late 1957 when reporting on an international army football tournament. The young Rocha had ‘bewildered our soldiers with spectacular ball work and cracked in a wonder goal’.
